According to documents filed in federal court this week, The Poway Unified School District said that it had feared that an anti-gay T-shirt, worn by 16-year-old Tyler Chase Harper last April, would incite violence at the school. Harper sued the school district in June, claiming that his suspension for wearing the shirt violated his civil rights to free speech.

“They told me that my faith and my view was offensive and I was told near the end of the day, when I was being detained, that if my faith was offensive to others I had to leave it in the car,” Harper said, at a press conference in June. “I responded that I cannot. I am not required to leave my religious faith in the car and I will bring it with me wherever I go and I will speak out on it.”

Harper wore the T-shirt on The NationalDay of Silence in April, a day of silent protest honoring the rights of GLBT youth who do not have a “voice” in schools. The T-shirt was hand-lettered with the words “I Will Not Accept What God Has Condemned” on the front. A message on the back of the T-shirt read “Homosexuality is Shameful” and “Romans 1:27,” a reference to a Bible passage.

In legal documents released this week, school administrators claim they feared the T-shirt would contribute to a polarized atmosphere between homosexual and heterosexual students.

“We all have a right to free speech, but nobody has a right to hurt people like that,” said Jennifer McArthur, a sophomore at Poway High School who was spoke to the Gay & Lesbian Times when the lawsuit was announced. “I heard about rude things that people did on that day. Someone spit in someone’s face, or called them fag or something that would just tear them down.”

Last fall, two students filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the school district, claiming they were forced to enter independent study programs because of taunting, physical assaults and death threats at the school due to their sexual orientation.

The San Diego Union-Tribune recently reported that one gay teen claimed students called him names, threw food at him and slammed him and physically abused him, while school officials did nothing to stop the harassment. Reports said that another student claims she was not allowed to play on the high school’s softball team after a player refused to play alongside a lesbian on the team. School officials have denied those allegations. Both incidents are scheduled to go to trial next year as one case, with the students represented by local attorney Paula Rosentstein.

School officials are saying they did not suspend Harper for wearing the T-shirt, but gave him a choice between changing into another shirt and spending the day in the office. Harper chose the in-school suspension over changing into another shirt.

“Nothing is more important to the Poway Unified School District than providing all of our students with a safe learning environment and their welfare is of our greatest concern,” the school district said in response to the lawsuit.

According to the Poway School District Student handbook, the dress code forbids “violence or hate behavior, including derogatory connotations directed toward sexual identity.” The school district policy forbids expressions of “racial, ethnic or religious prejudice” that might create a “clear and present danger” of unlawful acts or disruption of school operations.

Harper’s suit, filed on his behalf by the conservative Christian law firm the Alliance Defense Fund, states that his civil rights were violated by the school for not letting him express his religious views

“What they are attempting to do through the hate speech policy is really unconstitutional because it violates the right of conscience, the right of a person to believe and think what they want to think, rather than to engage in political correctness,” said Harper’s attorney, Robert Tyler. “We want the high school and this district to engage in constitutionally correct behavior.”

Daniel Shinoff, the lawyer for the Poway Unified School District, said in court filings that courts have ruled in the past that school administrators do indeed have the right to ban the T-shirt, including ones that depict the Confederate flag.

Shinoff went on to state in the court papers, “Homosexuals and bisexuals have the right to go to school without being accosted by offensive words no differently than Jewish students have the right to be free from a symbol offensive to them, such as a swastika.”

In his filing, Shinoff argued that hate speech is not guaranteed protection by the First Amendment and has asked U.S. District Judge John A. Houston to throw out the case.

A hearing is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 26, on whether or not the judge will grant the summary motion to throw the case out.